Religious freedom lost as White magazine shuts

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Christians are being run out of business, hounded by boycotts and bullied by activists, for adhering to their faith a year after the celebrated same-sex-marriage vote.

In a sign Australia faces a “crisis of freedom”, The Weekend Australian can ­reveal a successful international wedding magazine that chose not to feature gay couples will today announce its decision to shut down after becoming the target of an intimidation campaign.

The founders of White magazine, Christians Luke and Carla Burrell, said they were the targets of an activist campaign that deterred their advertisers, frightened their staff and included threats of physical harm because of their stand on same-sex weddings.

The couple, who have published White for 12 years, said the campaign was triggered by last year’s plebiscite and saw them branded homophobes and bigots. One individual warned their house would be burned down.

With the government poised to respond to a long-awaited review into religious freedoms amid ­concern gay school students and teachers will be subject to discrimination, the Burrells ­expressed deep frustration that ­activists had forced them to “draw the curtain on this part of our lives”.

“We hope that one day soon our society can learn to accept people’s differences and different points of view and love each other no matter what,” said the couple, who have been married for 17 years.

“A number of advertisers withdrew their sponsorship out of fear of being judged, or in protest. We have had to recognise the ­reality that White magazine is no longer economically viable.’’

In another case, Christian wedding photographer Jason Tey was taken to the West Australian Equal Opportunity Commission after he agreed to photograph the children of a same-sex couple but disclosed a conflict of belief, in case they felt more comfortable hiring someone else. At the conciliation hearing, it was demanded that Mr Tey provide an admission of discrimination as well as a written apology to be published publicly on the homepage of his website and all social media pages associated with his photography business for at least two months.

Mr Tey, 36, said: “I don’t believe that I have discriminated in any way, neither offered unfavourable treatment. I merely stated that I have a contrary view due to my Christian faith.”

The matter was not resolved at conciliation and was referred to the State Administrative Tribunal for mediation.

“This felt almost like a kick in the guts because I work so hard for my business to be a positive influence and to provide a living for my family,” Mr Tey said.

Martyn Iles, the managing ­director of the Australian Christian Lobby and a lawyer who helped establish the Human Rights Law Alliance, said the two cases were “just the tip of the iceberg” that represented “a quiet crisis of freedom that runs far deeper”.

He warned that Australians with traditional views on marriage, gender and family were now in “direct contradiction to new laws” and said he was ­“imploring the government to pass very high-quality religious freedoms into law”.

“We have had to assist in some 50 matters where people have come under legal persecution simply for what they believe,” he said. “These cases demonstrate the stunning intolerance shown towards those whose beliefs conflict with the new normal.’’

“Jason is being sued simply for stating his beliefs. Luke and Carla were harassed out of business for saying and doing nothing — for their silence. We are at the stage where anything less than total ­affirmation is worthy of vicious attack. We’re spiralling into an Orwellian nightmare.’’

The most recent edition of White, likely to be the last.

One of the recommendations of the review into religious freedoms — led by former Liberal ­attorney-general Philip Ruddock — is for a religious discrimination act. This would reframe the legal protections for religious freedoms as a “positive” right rather than continuing to have them ­enshrined as a “negative” right by way of exemptions to the Sex Discrimination Act.

The current system of exemptions, strengthened by Labor in 2013, allows faith-based institutions the ability to discriminate in certain circumstances — an arrangement that triggered a public backlash in the lead-up to last month’s Wentworth by-election.

Faith-based educators argue the existing system is untenable and unfairly creates the impression they want to discriminate against gay students and teachers when their objective is to ensure they have the legal right to employ staff who uphold the religious mission of the school.

Attorney-General Christian Porter will take the proposal for a religious discrimination act to cabinet for approval, but it is unclear whether the proposal will have enough support to pass the parliament.

White was published quarterly and, at its peak, had a circulation of about 32,000 copies and was available in 17 countries. It had a small staff with one full-time ­employee in addition to Mr and Mrs Burrell.

The couple would not name advertisers who abandoned the publication and confirmed they had not raised threats against them and staff with police.

In August, stories broke in the mainstream media identifying that White did not feature gay couples, with photographer Lara Hotz arguing it was an unspoken policy that should be made clear. Ms Hotz, whose images had featured in the magazine, said at the time she felt discriminated against.

The 32-year-old said yesterday she had also received numerous threats after posting about the magazine’s policy.

“I fully support religious freedom,” Ms Hotz said. “But this was simply a ­request for White magazine to be transparent with their advertisers and contributors so they could make informed decisions.”

There is a Facebook group of more than 550 wedding professionals called Equality in the Wedding Industry that has been following developments with the magazine. After the initial furore, a hashtag #UnveilYourValues began circulating on social media.